David Doubilet
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David Doubilet (b 28 November 1946) is a well known underwater photographer[1] known primarilly for his work published in National Geographic Magazine. He was born in New York and started taking photos underwater at the young age of 12. He started with a Brownie Hawkeye in a rubber anesthesiologist's bag to keep the water out of the camera. During his summer holidays, he spent his time along the New Jersey coast. He later worked as a diver and photographer for the Sandy Hook Marine Laboratories in New Jersey. He also spent much time in the Caribbean. While a dive instructor in the Bahamas he found his motivation to capture the beauty of the sea and everything in it.
His goal is to "redefine photographic boundaries" every time he enters the water. This has helped him achieve some of his greatest shots. In order to capture all the underwater wildlife, he takes several cameras with him on each of his trips. The main obstacle in underwater photography is the impossiblity of changing lenses or film underwater.
Doubilet’s ingenuity lead him to the invention of the split lens camera. This allowed him to take pictures above and below water simultaneously. This worked by having a separate focus point on the top half and bottom half of the scene. When the picture is taken, it is recorded onto the same negative.
He has shot well over sixty stories for National Geographic and published numerous books on his own. His most recent was a photo shot in Cuban waters entitled "The Last Caribbean Refuge."
Doubilet graduated from Boston University College of Communication in 1970.
His education has helped him his writing. He is well known for his reports on the sea and has written many books in recent years, one of which includes Australia’s Great Barrier Reef by National Geographic. He has received many awards for his works, such as The Explorers Club's Lowell Thomas Awards and the Lennart Nilsson Award for scientific photography (2001)[1].
Doubilet lives in Clayton, New York. Life in this small town near the St. Lawrence River is about old wooden boats, a nature studio to further his passion of the water. His second home is the small coastal town of Dekolder, South Africa.
